Our Peeps

{Peeps, image via Boston.com}

I don't have any sisters but I am very much a girlfriends-friends forever-these are my ladies type of person and so I always knew my wedding party would be massive. I felt (and still feel) that the people standing with you should represent you and important phases of your life. Before I was even close to getting engaged, I joked that my side of the wedding party would be 12 women...and if that meant two ladies to one man, well then so be it.

{image via Weddingbee.com}

While it ended up not being 12 (although it very easily could have been), I have 8 females standing up with me on my wedding day.

I have three best friends from high school, one who is my Maid of Honor (this title seems so ancient!). MOH Stacy & I have a picture together on the pre-school playground...through elementary school we always participated in birthday parties together; through middle school we stood by each other as other girls were not so nice; through high school we partied, laughed and cried; through college we traveled and lived in Guam together; 7 years after graduating college she is married with two daughters and we still see each other as often as life will let us. There was no question in my mind that she would be my MOH, she knows me pretty damn well and although we don't spend every day or night together anymore, there is no one else that I could picture with that title.

{From high school days to now}

My other two best friends from high school, BM Fawny & BM Jen, complete what I like to call the BFF circle. The four of us girls had far too much fun in high school and we have managed to hold on to our friendship for 15 years!

{Young BFF's in high school to more recently}

I have three cousins who I was raised with. Two of them are older and one of them younger, but growing up they were like my sisters. Although blood has us related, we all four know that we are very lucky to be friends in addition to relatives. We all live in Durango and so it makes family get togethers very fun because it's like I've got a group of girlfriends with me. So that's BM Kel Bel, BM Mae, & BM KT.

{Cousins in high school, Cousins at Christmas 2010. With an appearance by my bro!}

See? My side is already at 6 with my stand-by high school besties and my cousins.


BM Candace and I actually went to high school together but we didn't become friends until a few years after. She has been by my side since 2005 and I can't even put into words how much fun we have had over the years. I can always count on her to meet me for a drink, or be there with her shoulder for me to pout on.

{Candace & I circa 2005, and more recently in 2009}

Last, but certainly not least, BM Hogan. My dogg aka homegirl. We have a ridiculously fun time together...from girls nights out to including our men in a home cooked dinner. We have been known to sit on the couch and watch E! and cry from laughing so damn hard.

{First known picture of BM Hogan & I and of course more recently in 2009.}

{And an appearance by mine & D's matchmaker, Carly!}

That's eight. I had a very hard time keeping it to eight. I would have loved to add at least three more(I'm looking at you, JoJo, Em & Schlapps!). BUT I forced myself to stop at eight. We will have sixteen friends/family standing with us and then a small army of little ones, that's for another post. I can't wait to get pictures like these:

{Image via eleganceandsimplicity.com}

{Image via bridal.threaddesign.com}

{Image via carlateneyck.com}

For D it's not so easy; sure he's easily got eight friends but guys are different. I know that if these girls were anywhere in the world they would try their damnedest to get back to D-town for our wedding. D has two great friends here in Durango. His best man (luckily!) and one other dude that we are close to. The other six he has mentioned having are spread out around the country...and by that I mean on the eastern side of the US. And traveling to our little world is not easy peasy. Our airport is tiny, I'm talking two terminals; we are 6 hours from Denver and 4 hours from Albuquerque, the closest international airports.

This makes me a little worried, not that I don't have faith in his friends but I want to make sure that D has support from his buddies just like I will have support from my ladies on our big day. He was not so enthused to talk to his friends and 'invite' them to be groomsman, I think majority were asked via Facebook chat. Two were in person. And maybe a couple over the phone. And he's said more than once "Whoever can commit to coming to Colorado will be my groomsman." Men, I don't get them.

The day after we got engaged, I started calling my girls. MOH Stacy actually stopped by my office to see my bling and that's when I was able to ask her to be my MOH. I had always envisioned myself doing something clever to ask my favorite girls to be in my wedding, like this beauty:

{Image via Oncewed.com}

I also thought it would be creative if I just sent them a text and ask them if they were busy on January 21st? And when they responded, 'Why?' or 'How on earth am I supposed to know, that's so far away!' I would say 'Because I would like to have you stand with me on my WEDDING DAY!'.

Unfortunately, excitement got the very best of me and during each phone conversation, I just blurted out "I'm engaged! You are in the wedding!" Whoops.

Learn from my mistake, taking your TIME to relay this information to your bridesmaids is crucial...the follow up to this mistake, up next.